Category: The State

When the war is over nothing will have changed

In March 2009 I wrote the following about Enda Kenny’s leadership.

One of the greatest mysteries of Irish political life is how Enda Kenny is still leader of Fine Gael.

His performance in poll after poll is pathetic and the reason is obvious, he’s a nice man but a completely ineffective politician.

The last thing Ireland needs at this time is a ‘nice man’. What’s needed is a courageous, visionary, kick-assing son of a bitch with one focus – the best interests of the Irish people.

In the end it doesn’t matter who wins this latest Fine Gael war because neither Kenny nor Bruton has what it takes to lead Ireland.

Cowen is dead man walking so that just leaves Gilmore who will, most likely, enter a coalition with FG after the next election.

So will Gilmore do what’s necessary to save Ireland – highly unlikely?

A new government may make some changes perhaps even significant reform but the corrupt system itself will remain intact.

We will see the same parties, the same politicians, the same civil servants operating the same corrupt system that benefits a minority but is extremely damaging to the Irish people and the country as a whole.

Expenses scandal confirms political system is still rotten to the core

We are constantly told by politicians that things are different now. We’re told that the (corrupt) political system has been reformed, that the system is now transparent and accountable.

The ongoing expenses scandal gives the lie to all such assertions.

There’s not even a need to make an argument on the matter, the words of the politicians themselves are sufficient to confirm that the system is still rotten to the core.

Michael D Higgins: (Labour TD)

I think it’s important that we acknowledge the new system is there and hope that people will realise that people like Ivor Callely are exceptional and allow the rest of us to address the really serious issues.

I would worry about my own sanity if I regarded it as politically important.

I do insist that presenting this exotic behaviour as anything typical would be quite irresponsible.

Clearly, Higgins does not think that alleged fraud by an Irish politician is a serious issue or politically important.

This attitude displays a disturbing ignorance of reality.

All corruption in Ireland ultimately originates from the corruption of the political system but people like Higgins have yet to even notice that fact never mind actually act against the disease.

He’s happy to wallow in ignorance and denial while blaming the media for everything.

Dr. John Doyle (DCU)

Irish politicians have very few supports in staff and other facilities compared to other EU parliaments…the broader picture is that Irish politicians are not on the gravy train compared to the Europeans and North Americans.

Lise Hand (Columnist with Irish Independent) when asked to respond to Doyle’s comments.

Just picking my jaw up off the floor here.

Mary O’Rourke (Fianna Fail TD)

Apparently he (Callely) is hunting for a get out clause. I think it’s all very nauseating and awfully bad for the body politic and it’s wrong, wrong, wrong.

This is the politician who believed Bertie Ahern’s lies were quite reasonable explanations and was/is a great admirer of the criminal Haughey.

After Haughey died O’Rourke described his long and destructive record of criminality as ‘a few bumps on the road.’

Mary Hanafin (Minister for Arts, Sports and Tourism)

The answers that have come forward to date are not very clear. Senator Callely has to explain the situation to the Senate Committee.

There are certainly serious questions being asked and I believe he should be absolutely up front and clear about it.

Answers not very clear? Callely should be up front and clear. Is this the same politician who regularly stated, without embarrassment, that she believed every convoluted word from the mouth of the chancer Bertie Ahern?

The reason for this rank hypocrisy from O’Rourke and Hanafin is simple. Callely is not important; in fact he’s not even liked within Fianna Fail. He’s not a Fianna Fail mafia don so he can be discarded,

Senator Regan (Fine Gael)

I think this is an important issue, an issue of fraud by a member of this house.

Regan was told to withdraw the remark and did so immediately. Fraud by an Irish politician – the very idea?

Senator Dearey (Green Party)

Dearey was asked what should happen next (regarding Callely)

Well, you’ll appreciate I’m the newest kid on the block in there. I was appointed in the last couple of days in February so the intricacies of Oireachtas procedures are not something I would claim to be an expert on yet.

So, this politician needs to become an expert on the intricacies of Oireachtas procedures before he can give an opinion on the difference between right and wrong.

Senator Mullen (Independent) (From Galway but lives in Dublin)

On being asked what advice he received from a fellow politician in relation to claiming expenses when he first entered the Senate in 2007.

You could claim your expenses from Ahascragh (Galway) and if you’re here long enough you’ll have a house out of it.

Senator Mullen’s response to this advice:

We all deal in our own way with bad suggestions like that. You don’t necessarily give the person a lecture on ethics and propriety on the spot.

Senator Mullen is a deeply conservative Catholic who constantly lecturers Irish citizens on ethical matters.

It would appear that ethics in politics, if that’s not an oxymoron, do not feature in this Senator’s sense of morality.

Senator Butler (Fianna Fail)

Gets paid €20,000 more in travel expenses because he says he’s moved home to county Carlow although his home address is listed as Foxrock in Dublin.

Senator Doherty (Sinn Fein, Donegal)

Senator Doherty questions why Fine Gael TD Dinny McGinley, who lives in the same town land as Doherty, claims substantially more travel expenses.

McGinley claims that he was advised by security people back in the troubles to stay within the state. Fear that he might become a war casualty results in him having to take a longer route to and from Dublin.

Apparently, nobody has informed the TD that the war ended about 20 years ago.

Senator Regan (Fine Gael) who angrily accused Callely of fraud said that McGinley’s claims were a minor matter but Senator Doherty responded that they amounted to tens of thousands of Euros.

Senator Doherty believes that politicians are grossly overpaid on expenses.

It doesn’t cost me €466 to get from Donegal to Dublin. I have a car over a four year loan period. Repayments are €310 per month and I get €466 per return journey.

Senator Regan (Fine Gael) on being asked why politicians do not use public transport.

There’s an efficiency problem with that. Coming from Donegal might not work for a local TD who needs to get back to his constituency to attend particular events. Some have to go back mid week so there’s a practicality to it.

Bullshit is the only possible response to this view.

Senator O’Brolchain (Green Party)

Asked did he think people (politicians) were going by train and claiming mileage for it?

Well, I’m absolutely certain of it. I know of many instances of that, there are many instances where people are abusing the system.

Senator White (Fianna Fail) The following comments are a mixture of insult, paternalism and lies.

I’m very conscious listening to the discussion so far that the Irish public is listening out there very, very worried and probably incensed.

They’re not understanding some of the language that’s being used -vouched, unvouched etc and I think it’s very confusing.

First of all I would like to reassure the Irish people that a new regime has just being brought in. It’s a radical change over what has gone on forever as far as I’m concerned.

It is highly transparent system now and to be honest when I first came to the Senate in 2002 I was amazed at the lack of transparency and the lack of having to produce vouched receipts.

I am acutely conscious that it’s taxpayers’ money that I am being paid and accountable for every day.

But I would really like to reassure the people that we now have a highly transparent system.

This stupid politician, who, by the way wants to be President, didn’t say if she intends educating a ‘confused’ and ‘ignorant’ Irish public on the meaning of such ‘complex’ words like vouched and unvouched.

Senator Labhras O’Murchu (Fianna Fail) (Based in Tipperary)

When O’Murchu was asked about his expenses he said that when in Dublin he stays at Comthlas headquarters for about €50 per night. He claims that he uses the balance of money to pay for the rest of his daily expenses.

O’Murchu is Director General of Comthlas. Comthlas has refused to make any comment on the matter.

Jackie Healy-Rae (Fianna Fail independent)

Healy Rae admitted that up until recently he has been driving to the Dail from his Kerry constituency in the company of another Oireachtas member. He refused to name the other politician or whether both of them have claimed expenses.

When pressed on the matter he responded:

I know my own business and I won’t be declaring it to you or anybody else.

In other words this backwoodsman is telling the media and the people of Ireland to take a hike.

His ignorant and arrogant attitude is a clear indication that nothing has changed in this country and as I have said on many occasions nothing will ever change until these traitors are thrown out of public office and the entire corrupt system under which they enrich themselves is brought crashing down.

Copy to:

Fianna Fail
Fine Gael
Labour
Green Party
Senator Mullen
Seanad Eireann
Dail Eireann

Pat Kenny unnerved by Hitchens challenge

During an interview on yesterday’s show Pat Kenny asked author and outspoken atheist, Christopher Hitchens, for his views on the child abuse scandal in the Catholic Church.

Hitchens didn’t mince his words when it came to how Irish authorities were dealing with the matter.

Hitchens:

What’s happening in your country, don’t you have a department of public prosecutions?

Kenny:

We do.

Hitchens:

What are your police for? If there are men who have admitted forcing children to sign untruthful statements and forcing them to shut up. These men are walking around free, why is that may I ask, why should a private citizen be left to point this out.

What are your forces of law and order doing?

Kenny:

Well, it is a matter, as you can well imagine, of robust debate here and has been for quite some time.

Hitchens:

Yes, I know, I follow it and I’ve been very impressed with the tenacity of the Irish survivors and their friends and representatives but again as I say it’s been left to victims and their friends to seek justice.

Why do the organs of justice not decide to take a hand and when will they do so, I’ll leave you with the question.

Kenny seemed unnerved by Hitchens’ challenge regarding the lack of action by the forces of law and order.

He seemed puzzled that Hitchens didn’t understand how these things are dealt with in Ireland – by endless talk.

ODCE: Still trying defend the indefensible

The Director of Corporate Enforcement, Paul Appleby, is still desperately trying to convince anyone willing to listen that his office served the public interest in the DCC/Flavin fraud case.

The point of a High Court inspection is to get to the bottom of things. That was achieved with the inspectors’ report.

He essentially concluded that there was no deliberate wish to evade the law.

We obviously accept that. We felt, and still feel, that we discharged a valuable public-interest role in uncovering many of the events and issues.

The Supreme Court had already found that DCC had engaged in serious fraud but this finding was essentially dismissed by a mere High Court inspector who effectively apologised to Flavin and DCC for any inconvenience caused.

Appleby also pointed out that the High Court inspector found that DCC had made a ‘costly error’ when illegally dealing in Fyffes shares in 2000.

Isn’t it incredible that one of the most senior law enforcement officers in the state can casually state that the ‘illegal’ trading of stocks was nothing more than a costly ‘error’?

The word ‘illegal’ has two different meanings in Ireland.

When the state is using the word in relation to cases like the DCC fraud it is just a series of letters beginning with ‘i’ and ending in ‘l’, it has no other meaning and therefore no further action is necessary.

For ordinary citizens the word always means police, arrest, courts and frequently – jail.

Long live the (corrupt) republic

Sunday Independent business correspondent Brian Keenan is a conservative.

He’s one of those people who sincerely believe he lives in a functional democracy where accountability is, if not the norm, at least possible. It must, therefore, have been difficult for him to admit the following.

The truth is that Ireland is an ill-governed country, and has been for some time.

Yes, I know, it’s a mild almost sheepish description of the horrific reality that Ireland is facing but it’s a start for a journalist who, to date, has lived in a lovely, warm and comfortable cocoon of denial.

He goes on:

Time is now running out, not just to fix the public finances, but to fix the body politic.

You see here, it’s beginning to dawn on this conservative that there’s something wrong with our political system. Yes, he’s about 30 years too late with his tiny and timid insight but it’s a start for a journalist who has always been comfortable in his denial.

He goes on:

Fianna Fail, of course, will have to fix itself. For most of the past 30 years, it has been part of the problem rather than part of the solution. Like much of the country’s other difficulties, this is fundamentally due to an unwillingness to change.

Wow, this is incredible insight – Fianna Fail is part of the problem.

Let’s see, around 1982 I realised that Fianna Fail was rotten to the core with corruption. The party that still supports and admires the criminal Haughey is the single greatest factor in the destruction of our country.

The solution is not for Fianna Fail to fix itself; the solution is for Fianna Fail to be destroyed as a power in the land.

The question that Mr. Keenan grapples with in his article is whether Ireland should default on its debts and it is here that we see he has learned nothing; that he’s still living in his comfortable but deadly denial.

It cannot just be economic calculations, though. No rich country has defaulted since World War II. Twenty years ago, rugby captain Ciaran Fitzgerald had not yet uttered what remains my instinctive response to the idea: “Where’s your f**king pride?”

Here Keenan looks out from the cesspit of corruption that Ireland has become and shouts at the world.

We are Irish, we’re proud and we will defeat this terrible disaster not by facing uncomfortable realities, not be putting the corrupt in jail, not by radically reforming our corrupt political, regulatory and business sectors.

No, we will solve our problems by appealing to a false, naïve and totally misplaced nationalism.

Long live the (corrupt) republic.

A corrupt administration will never introduce an effective whistleblowers charter

In a hard hitting article in today’s Irish Times, John Devitt of Transparency International (Ireland); exposes the Government’s latest deceitful attempt at pretending that Ireland is serious about tackling white collar crime.

The Minister for Justice is pretending that the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Act

will provide protection to any person, in any sector, reporting suspicions of corruption in good faith.

Mr. Devitt says that the Act will only provide limited protection to those reporting the very narrowly defined offence of bribery.

He goes on to ask:

So why does the Government still think it inappropriate to introduce a universal whistleblowers’ charter that works for everyone?

The Government seems to have been swayed by three equally dubious argument writes Mr. Devitt.

I’m not going to waste my time analysing what are obviously ridiculous arguments by the Company Law Review Group, Ibec and the Government itself except to say that they are pathetic excuses put forward by a corrupt administration that will never act against its own interests by introducing effective anti-corruption laws.

Mr. Devitt also asks why the republic cannot introduce a universal whistleblowers charter similar to the very successful charter introduced in the UK in 1998.

The answer is simple but brutal; the State cannot introduce any effective anti-corruption legislation because to do so would immediately expose the appalling vista that Ireland is an intrinsically corrupt state.

All states suffer to some degree from the disease of corruption but most states have effective authorities in place, free of political interference, that fight the disease on an ongoing basis.

When corruption is uncovered in these states the relevant authorities act against the corrupt; police investigations, trials and jail sentences are a normal and accepted part of the culture of these countries.

Some states, mostly in the Third World, are so corrupt, the disease is so ingrained in the culture that effective action is practically impossible because those who wield power are completely dependent on the corrupt system for their survival – Ireland is such a country.

Anyone with even the slightest knowledge of what’s gone on in this country in the last few decades cannot deny this reality.

For example, it is a fact that the Financial Regulator and the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement (ODCE) are nothing more than fake enforcement authorities. They have only one effective purpose – to create the illusion that Ireland is a normal, functional democracy.

These authorities do not and have never taken any effective action against the corrupt. I can say with absolute confidence that the cases which are presently being dealt by these authorities will not result in any substantial accountability.

It is obvious that Ireland needs a universal whistleblowers charter, it is obvious, from the example of other countries; that such measures are effective in combating corruption but it is also depressingly obvious that no effective action will be taken until the corrupt political system itself is taken down.

Bankers have nothing to fear

Letter in today’s Irish Independent.

Bankers allowed make their own rules

IT is with a sense of despair, but not surprise, that I read the top brass of our bailed-out banks continue to reward themselves for failure, and our toothless Government just stands aside as they top up their pensions by multiples of the average industrial wage each year (Irish Independent, May 18). This, apparently, cannot be touched as it’s in their contracts.

As a rank-and-file employee in a leading financial institution for pushing 12 years I can tell you from experience that contracts can, and are, changed by banks.

Although I joined a couple of years too late to avail of the defined benefit scheme that was operating for new employees in the mid-1990s, a number of my colleagues were on it, thereby getting a set percentage of their final salary on retirement.

Two years ago, due to the ‘dire funding position’ of the defined benefit pension pot, all their contracts were changed and they had to start contributing a significant percentage of their salary.

This percentage is subject to (a probably upward only) review. Of course the Government then went and added their own slap in the face with the extra three years to retirement, but that’s another story.

If contracts can be changed for ordinary financial institution employees, there’s no reason why they cannot be changed for the top brass. This all reeks of a ploy to get around the new bank salary cap. At the same time, the top bankers are conveniently avoiding having to take what looks remarkably like a bonus in the form of their now worthless bank shares — instead, they take it as a pension top-up.

I’m not surprised at the bankers, who are feathering their own nests, or at our complicit politicians, who are happy to shift the focus from their own substantial nest eggs, but I despair.

Name and address with editor
Irish Independent

It has to be said again and again. The only reason bankers can feel completely safe in behaving in such an obnoxious manner is because Ireland is an intrinsically corrupt state. Nothing will change until the rotten; beyond reform political system is destroyed.

Lessons from Iceland? – Not until the Irish people learn anger

Irish Times columnist, Elaine Byrne, asks the question: Are there any lessons Ireland can learn from what happened in Iceland at the end of 2008? (Prime Time).

Very briefly, here’s what happened.

As a result of corruption and political irresponsibility the Icelandic economy collapsed resulting in severe hardship for the majority of the population.

There was an immediate angry reaction from the people which resulted in the outing of the government and an election.

One citizen said:

It’s not about the banks anymore, people need to stand up and fight for themselves, their families and for the future of their country.

An investigation into the banks, headed by an outside expert, was also initiated and is now complete. The investigation named people and they in turn accepted responsibility.

The former Icelandic Prime Minister said:

Those of us who were in power and had responsibility did too little too late, that is something I will have to live with for the rest of my life.

Ms. Byrne completed the report with the following comment:

I wonder then should we even bother having an inquiry at all. Having a proper inquiry means naming the people responsible and bringing them to account.

Nothing will happen in Ireland unless we learn from the mistakes of the past. Only then can we get to the next stage of the recovery.

Rebuilding trust is crucial for that next stage.

Allow me to answer that question.

The Irish banking inquiry is a farce; it is specifically designed to protect the guilty, there will be no accountability. I can say this with confidence because I am aware that I live in a state in which the political and administrative systems are intrinsically corrupt.

These systems are corrupt because the majority of Irish people are politically ignorant and are therefore incapable of taking unified anger against the government like the people of Iceland did against their government.

It is only with the emergence of a courageous and visionary leader(ship) that is capable of stepping outside the narrow, parochial mindset of politicians that the Irish people will see real justice and accountability.

Tragically, there is no sign whatsoever that such a leader(ship) is even on the horizon and therefore the disintegration of our corrupt republic will continue on its leaderless and therefore dangerous road to total collapse.

Greencore scandal and the Irish Stock Exchange

I came across the following report (undated, but I think it’s sometime in the early 1990s) published in the then Cork Examiner concerning the Greencore scandal.

The Greencore saga lives on.

Last night in an extraordinary statement the Stock Exchange said it wanted to make it ‘clear’ that it ‘neither confirms nor denies that it is or is not investigating or monitoring dealings in any stock at any time for the purpose of identifying any possible insider dealing’.

The Cork Examiner has been given assurances that a high powered team of experts has been set up to unravel the real meaning behind the statement.

Insider dealing may have taken place in the shares of Food Industries now the subject of a £54 million bid by Greencore.

The Stock Exchange statement is indeed extraordinary, even bizarre but not unusual within the context of so called Irish financial regulation.

Even today, decades later, the Irish Stock Exchange is a completely secretive organisation accountable to nobody but itself.

See Gavin’s blog and Sunday Independent for full details on this particular scandal.

Titanic captain: Don't worry, all is well

The captain of Titanic (Ireland) made a statement yesterday claiming that while the company had made some mistakes the collision with the iceberg had nothing to do with him.

The captain and his officers continue to assure passengers that the damage, while serious, is under control and therefore steerage passengers shouldn’t worry that the limited number of lifeboats have already been filled with bankers, property developers and politicians.

The ship, they insist, is not sinking and therefore ordinary passengers shouldn’t be concerned about the possibility of ending up swimming for their lives in the frozen waters of the dead Irish economy.

The captain’s reassuring statement is backed up by his advisory group, Goodbody Stockbrokers, who (coincidently) report that the pumps have successfully stemmed the flooding waters and that the ship will safely reach port sometime in 2011.

A Goodbody spokesman said that no significance whatsoever should be attached to the fact that his company’s statement was issued from the captain’s lifeboat.